The Church is a safe place for our children

Audits of child protection practices, conducted by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, have been published by six dioceses, today. Six reports in one day, that's a lot to process, but at least we can get it over and done with in one go. Here they are  Raphoe, Derry, Dromore, Kilmore, Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, Tuam.

At a glance there is a lot of positive information in these reports. Most of the focus will be on the allegations and failures. We must remember, that these allegations and failures are historical. They bear no reflection on how things are in the Church in Ireland today. I firmly believe that the Catholic Church in Ireland is one of the safest places for children today.

In Ireland we have a lot to learn from past failures. Irish sociey, and not just the Church, has been failing children for far too long, hopefully we can all learn from the failures in our past.

It is my hope that the Church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society. By the same token, just as the Church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards.  -Pope Benedict XVI November 27th 2011

http://www.safeguarding.ie/

Praying for Vocations

Fr Ruari O Domhnaill CC Newbridge celebrated an Afternoon of Prayer on Sunday last  in Maynooth College for an increase in vocations to priesthood and consecrated life. The Afternoon was arranged by members of St Joseph's Young Priests Society.

http://www.stjosephsyoungpriestssociety.com/

 

A Prayer for Vocations

O Jesus, send labourers into

your fields,

which are awaiting holy apostles,

saintly priests,

heroic missionaries and

dedicated sisters and brothers.

Enkindle in the hearts of men and

women the spark of a vocation.

Grant that Christian families may

desire to give your Church,

helpers in the work of tomorrow.

Amen.

Patsy McGarry and Breda O'Brien on Vincent Brown

Patsy McGarry and Breda O'Brien were on the Vinvent Brown show on Tuesday night. They were there to discuss the RTE Fr Reynolds debacle. In the middle of the discussion McGarry did some character assisination on O'Brien. I am not a fan of McGarry, and during the show his accusations against O'Brien were a disgrace. McGarry obviously needs to learn some lessons from the Fr Roynolds case.

McGarry: ”Breda comes from the provisional wing of the Catholic church, and never resists an opportunity to have a go at the media. And has been doing this for years – often to the detriment of the emergence of this tragedy. The reason this has happened…”

O’Brien: ”That’s a really serious allegation Mr McGarry.”

I found a transcript of the conversion on Broadsheet.

Link to the show on 3player.

Inclusivity for everyone except Catholics

The recommendations of the The Forum on the future patronage of Catholic schools  make sober reading. It is all still all at the proposal stage, but as a catholic parent I am not impressed. I have no problem divesting some catholic schools, but it seems that the catholic schools we will be left with, will not be worth having.

One proposal that needs to be shot down immediately is that our Catholic schools will only be allowed to be Catholic at certain times in the day. Do these people not realise that good teaching is not done in this way? Religious instruction will be restricted to a particular periods in the day. It seems that Catholic schools will only be allowed to have a catholic ethos at these times. When I sent my children to school, I choose a Catholic school, I wanted a Catholic ethos.

Now I do not begrudge non-catholics a secular education, but I would question their right to have it in my catholic school. It is not the fault of the Catholic Church that there are few non catholic schools. Our state has failed to provide them, so blame the state and leave our Catholic schools alone.

In a few years time, our Catholic children in our Catholic schools may not be allowed to learn, or sing Christmas carols in school. The mere mention of Christmas may be banned, as someone might get offended. There will be no nativity plays or carol services! Christmas is after all a christian celebration, and therefore it excludes all non Christians, so Christmas will have to be cancelled, as far as school is concerned.  The teacher may get in trouble for handing out pictures of the baby Jesus, the sheperds, or the wise men to colour-in. There will be no colouring of shamrocks for St Patrick's day. There will be no mention of lent. Will my children get detention if they mention Jesus or our Blessed Mother outside of the allotted time?? There will be no mass, no prayers for the dead etc... These suggestions really are unbelievable!!!!!!! We will not be allowed to do anything, say anything, or celebrate anything that might exclude someone.

The Forums proposals are all about inclusivity, but this inclusivity seems to be all about excluding the viewpoint of Catholics! How can we celebrate our christian life without excluding Muslims, or atheists? We can not.

The images below are from the presentation of the recommendations of the Forum on the Future of Catholic schools.

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

from The Presentation of the Virgin Mary by Titian
 (1534-38, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice).

Can I tempt you?

Simple.

We can do better than this!

Majority backed Kenny’s Cloyne speech is a piece written in yesterdays Irish Examiner.  Here is an excerpt:

The Irish Examiner requested to view letters and emails received by the department between July 20 and August 1.

A total of 507 messages were released, with 455 (89.8%) entirely supportive of the speech; a further 23 (4.5%) conditionally supportive; and the remaining 29 (5.7%) critical.

When I read this I got annoyed, the Department of the Taoiseach only received 29 letters of complaint. Are we pathetic or what? This is simply just not good enough. I wrote, did you write? Are you sure you did? The only thing that can excuse this pathetic number of complaints is the short time frame. Catholics of Ireland, we can do better than this! and if we can't we deserve all that aggressive secularism throws at us!

Prayer

Jesus, King of All Nations,

Whose Reign is without end,

May we serve You.

Amen.

Passion of the Christ- In Christ Alone

Is the Irish Government Anti-Catholic?

The Irish government's decision to close the Irish Embassy to the Holy See has been greeted by many Irish Catholics with shock. Many now realise that the closure has absolutely nothing to do with money. It is simply our aggressively secular government, putting our Church, in what they think is its proper place. The antics of this current government are alienating catholics. The latest Iona Institute survey shows clearly that on the ground people are feeling the hostility. From the survey:

"One in five consider the Government to be excessively hostile towards the Catholic Church.

Almost a third of weekly Mass-goers believe the Government is excessively hostile towards the Church."

Is this acceptable? No. Our government does not have the right to harass Irish Catholics in this way. Shame on them. Below is a definition of anti-Catholicism from Wikipedia.

Iona survey shows the Irish government's hostility towards the Catholic Church

Suggested reading : Attitudes Towards the Catholic Church. An Amárach Report for the Iona Institute  October 2012.



page 8, The Amarach Report,
The Iona Institute



Make sure you tell your politicians what you think...

I encourage all readers of this blog to send a letter or email to their local politicans, and to the head honchos, of this banana republic (namely Enda and Eamon). Please let them know that you are not happy with the closure of our Embassy to the Holy See. Tell the the decision is unacceptable, and tell them that their behaviour is disgraceful! If you do not tell them, they will not know. Afterall they are not mind readers.

TAOISEACH'S PRIVATE OFFICE

e-mail:  taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie
Phone: 01-6194020 / 4021 / 4043
Fax: 01-6764048

Eamon Gilmore TD, The Labour Party

Leader of the Labour Party, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade
Tel:Constituency Office 01 4082018
Constituency Office Fax: 01 4082690
Email:  eamon.gilmore@oir.ie

Our Government Hates Our Church

It is now official, the Irish Government hates the Catholic Church. Our Taoiseach attacked the Pope in June, and now they are closing the Embassy to the Holy See. It really is a teenage tantrum gone too far, and I fear that much damage will be done before adolescence is over. The closure makes no real sense, (unless you are a huffing teenager). The Tanaiste has said that the Embassy is of no economic benefit. So I expect that we will have more embassy closures in the near future. (Not a chance, as the closure of the Embassy to the Holy See has nothing to do with economics, it is entirely political). The anti-catholic labour party are busy furthering their social agenda, and no doubt they are very pleased with themselves. We are at a very dangerous juncture in Irish history, people are distracted by our economic uncertainties, and the devil himself is running amuck in our beloved land. Our government hates our church, so what now for the catholics of this country?

And the devil led him onto a high mountain, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and he said to him: “To you, I will give all this power, and its glory. For they have been handed over to me, and I give them to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours.” Luke 4:6

Prayer

To you, Triune God,

confident in the loving protection of Mary,

Queen of Ireland, our Mother,

and of Saint Patrick, Saint Brigid and all the saints,

do we entrust ourselves, our children,

and the needs of the Ireland. Amen.

Photo dropping

I simply can not do name dropping as well as Cork people, but I'll try a little photo dropping instead. This is me waiting for lunch at the Villa Spada (the soon to be ex-residence of Irish Ambassador to the Holy See). It was a nice lunch. And by the way I hate the Labour Party and Fine Gael!

May God save the Irish from themselves.

A Pilgrimage Not to be Missed

The Fraternity of St Genesius is off on pilgrimage once again.

All Souls Day

All Souls' Day by William Bouguereau

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.